Right now
Keep it in one room and keep everyone else out.
- Close the door to the room so it cannot fly further into the house
- Keep children and pets out
- Turn off the lights in the room and open a window or an outside door if there is one
- Do not touch the bat with bare hands
When to call a doctor
Bats can carry rabies, and a bite can be too small to see. Call your doctor or the health department if anyone may have touched the bat, was bitten or scratched, or if the bat was in a room where someone was asleep. In those cases, ask them before you let the bat go, because they may want it tested.
One bat, or a colony?
One bat can come in by accident through an open door or the chimney. If you see bats leaving the roof at dusk, find small dark droppings in the attic or under a gap, or bats keep turning up inside, a colony is living in the house.
How a colony is removed
Bats are never trapped or sealed in. We find the gaps they use and fit one-way exits, so they fly out at night and cannot get back in. Then we seal the house. In early summer, while the young cannot fly, the sealing waits.